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Exploring the Future of Computingen-usCopyright 2001-2015, David AdamsOSNews version 4donotreply@osnews.com (Adam Scheinberg)donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)Sun, 02 Aug 2015 20:31:43 GMThttp://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gifOSNewshttp://www.osnews.com/
120A company copes with backlash against the raise that roaredhttp://www.osnews.com/story/28749/A_company_copes_with_backlash_against_the_raise_that_roared/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28749/A_company_copes_with_backlash_against_the_raise_that_roared/Three months ago, Mr. Price, 31, announced he was setting a new minimum salary of $70,000 at his Seattle credit card processing firm, Gravity Payments, and slashing his own million-dollar pay package to do it. He wasn't thinking about the current political clamor over low wages or the growing gap between rich and poor, he said. He was just thinking of the 120 people who worked for him and, let's be honest, a bit of free publicity. The idea struck him when a friend shared her worries about paying both her rent and student loans on a $40,000 salary. He realized a lot of his own employees earned that or less.
Yet almost overnight, a decision by one small-business man in the northwestern corner of the country became a swashbuckling blow against income inequality.
Whether you support his actions or not, ask yourself this question: what does it say about our society that a young man slashing his own salary to increase that of his employees draws more ire than a CEO raising his own salary to 70 times that of an average employee?
Most mystifying of all, though, are the employees leaving because their coworkers got a pay raise to $70000, while they themselves already earned $70000. I don't understand this mindset. You still have your salary. You still get your $70000, except now your fellow men and women on the work floor also get it. Is your self-worth really derived from earning more than the people around you? Is your sense of self really dictated by how much more you earn than Jim from accounting or Alice from engineering?
Maybe I'm just too Dutch and too little American to understand this mindset, but I firmly believe this world would be a massively better place if more CEOs cut their own salaries to raise that of their employees.Sat, 01 Aug 2015 11:12:17 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News99http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsNetherlands: a look at the world's high-tech startup capitalhttp://www.osnews.com/story/28674/Netherlands_a_look_at_the_world_s_high-tech_startup_capital/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28674/Netherlands_a_look_at_the_world_s_high-tech_startup_capital/Itâs a fascinating time to take stock of startup innovation in the Netherlands, a rare turning point where you can watch the hard work of the past give way to the immense promise of the future.
Behind London and Berlin, the Dutch startup scene is already considered to be one of the most prominent in Europe. (If it feels unfair to weigh an entire country against individual cities, consider that the Netherlands has 17 million people crammed into an area half the size of South Carolina.)
The world of startups is intricately linked to technology, software, and Silicon Valley, but at the same time, it's a world that's very far away from me. The working hours, the insecurity, the minute chances at success - I would never opt for such a life.
Which is why people like me don't found the next Apple or Google.Mon, 06 Jul 2015 22:26:26 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News8http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsThe high school student who Maps ISIS' advancehttp://www.osnews.com/story/28630/The_high_school_student_who_Maps_ISIS_advance/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28630/The_high_school_student_who_Maps_ISIS_advance/Thomas van Linge's colorful, detailed maps showing which parties control which parts of Iraq, Libya and Syria are a hit whenever he posts them on Twitter. They have been cited on news stories in the Huffington Post, Lebanon's Daily Star and Vox, as well as on the University of Texas at Austin's website. But van Linge isn't a policy expert and he's never been to the region: In fact, heâs just a Dutch high school student who tracks the war on social media.
Quite amazing (van Linge's work, obviously - not the subject matter!).Tue, 16 Jun 2015 18:01:13 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News10http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsThe Agency: Russia's 'troll farm'http://www.osnews.com/story/28604/The_Agency_Russia_s_troll_farm_/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28604/The_Agency_Russia_s_troll_farm_/Who was behind all of this? When I stumbled on it last fall, I had an idea. I was already investigating a shadowy organization in St. Petersburg, Russia, that spreads false information on the Internet. It has gone by a few names, but I will refer to it by its best known: the Internet Research Agency. The agency had become known for employing hundreds of Russians to post pro-Kremlin propaganda online under fake identities, including on Twitter, in order to create the illusion of a massive army of supporters; it has often been called a "troll farm." The more I investigated this group, the more links I discovered between it and the hoaxes. In April, I went to St. Petersburg to learn more about the agency and its brand of information warfare, which it has aggressively deployed against political opponents at home, Russia's perceived enemies abroad and, more recently, me.
If you ever wonder where those crazy Putin supporters all across the web came from - well, now you know.Tue, 02 Jun 2015 14:21:57 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News37http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsThe dystopian lake filled by the world's tech lusthttp://www.osnews.com/story/28448/The_dystopian_lake_filled_by_the_world_s_tech_lust/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28448/The_dystopian_lake_filled_by_the_world_s_tech_lust/You may not have heard of Baotou, but the mines and factories here help to keep our modern lives ticking. It is one of the world's biggest suppliers of "rare earth" minerals. These elements can be found in everything from magnets in wind turbines and electric car motors, to the electronic guts of smartphones and flatscreen TVs. In 2009 China produced 95% of the world's supply of these elements, and it's estimated that the Bayan Obo mines just north of Baotou contain 70% of the world's reserves. But, as we would discover, at what cost?
Disturbing.Fri, 03 Apr 2015 22:50:00 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News18http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsI can text you a pile of poo, but I can't write my namehttp://www.osnews.com/story/28404/I_can_text_you_a_pile_of_poo_but_I_can_t_write_my_name/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28404/I_can_text_you_a_pile_of_poo_but_I_can_t_write_my_name/The Unicode Consortium has launched a very controversial project known as Han Unification: an attempt to create a limited set of characters that will be shared by these so-called "CJK languages." Instead of recognizing these languages as having their own writing systems that share some common ancestry, the Han unification process views them as mere variations on some "true" form.
To help English readers understand the absurdity of this premise, consider that the Latin alphabet (used by English) and the Cyrillic alphabet (used by Russian) are both derived from Greek. No native English speaker would ever think to try "Greco Unification" and consolidate the English, Russian, German, Swedish, Greek, and other European languages' alphabets into a single alphabet. Even though many of the letters look similar to Latin characters used in English, nobody would try to use them interchangeably.
Pretty damning explanation of how some of the most popular languages in the world are treated as second class citizens by the Unicode Consortium. Not coincidentally, this consortium is pretty much entirely run by American and European men and (a few) women.Tue, 17 Mar 2015 23:59:14 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News52http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsThe human value of horologyhttp://www.osnews.com/story/28380/The_human_value_of_horology/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28380/The_human_value_of_horology/
Watch expert Benjamin Clymer, founder and executive editor of luxury watch site HODINKEE, writing for The Verge:
With Apple Watch, the price differentiation between the entry-level Sport at $349, the standard Apple Watch at $549, and the Edition at $10,000 is about perceived value - what materials are used in the case, bracelet, and straps, but also how much people believe they should be paying for the product. In addition to perceived value, mechanical watches are also priced by human value: how much of the work is done by hand (in many cases using 200-year-old methods). For example, a watchmaker named Philippe Dufour makes just 12 watches per year, alone in his one-room atelier in the mountains of Switzerland. A simple, time-only piece can cost $100,000. Whether the case is gold or platinum, the price of a Philippe Dufour watch remains (roughly) static - you are not paying for materials, you are paying for Mr. Dufour's time and touch. The Apple Watch has minimal human value, and that is the biggest difference between it and its mechanical counterparts.
Just how much human value can a customer expect from a mechanical watch, relative to a similarly priced Apple Watch? The difference is startling.
I'm linking this excellent piece not because I believe the Apple Watch - or any other smartwatch - competes with mechanical watches; I link to it to illustrate why it does not. No matter how much Ive-narrated gold you encase your smatwatch with, at its core, it's still just a machine-produced mass-market gadget that will be obsolete only a few years down the line. This is antithetical to what traditional, high-end horology is all about.
As I've detailed before, I love watches. I'm not rich, so I buy watches in the â¬150-200 range. However, I dream of one day owning a watch from my favourite watch brand, Officine Panerai (something like this one). This company doesn't make a lot of watches, and many models are only sold on invitation. It's the kind of brand where if you have to ask about the price, you can't afford it. Luckily, the used market is a bit more forgiving.
Buying a watch like this is not something you do with your mind - but with your heart. It's like buying a beautiful painting or a classic car; something that can eventually be passed down onto your children and become part of the family heritage. That's either something that appeals to you, or it doesn't. It will take a long time before smartwatches can achieve that kind of status.
This, however, does not mean the gold Apple Watch models will fail - quite the opposite. I'm only trying to illustrate that high-end mechanical watches and the golden Apple Watch do not really compete with each other; they kind of exist on a plane where money doesn't matter. It's a world that us non-rich folk do not understand. A golden Apple Watch will not take the place of a high-end mechanical watch in the same way that someone's BMW 6 series isn't taking the place of her classic Jaguar E-Type.Tue, 10 Mar 2015 11:40:08 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News32http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsWho can save the Grand Canyon?http://www.osnews.com/story/28332/Who_can_save_the_Grand_Canyon_/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28332/Who_can_save_the_Grand_Canyon_/When Teddy Roosevelt declared the Grand Canyon a national monument, in 1908, he famously said: "Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it." In that sense, the Escalade is a thumb in TR's eye. Covering hundreds of acres on Navajo Reservation land, it is arguably the most intrusive development ever proposed for the Grand Canyon - a $500 million to $1.1 billion recreation and transport facility featuring a 1.4-mile tramway equipped with eight-passenger gondolas that would carry as many as 10,000 people a day down to the river confluence, with new roads, hotels, gift shops, restaurants and other attractions. The developer - Confluence Partners LLC, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based investment group whose members' ventures include real estate, resorts and theme parks - says construction of the Escalade could begin as early as this year.
I've been to the Grand Canyon. It is one of the most beautiful, awe-inspiring, unforgettable, and, well, grand pieces of nature our planet has to offer. My friends and I stood on one of the edges, at six in the morning, off-season in late October, without any other people around, and we slowly watched the sun rise over the Canyon, slowly lighting afire the reddish rocks as the shadows of night made way for the Arizona sun.
It's not something you can describe in words or capture in a photograph. It's something you have to experience. Something emotional, and, I'm sure, for some people, something spiritual.
This project should not continue. Ever. The Grand Canyon must not turn into the horrid Canadian side of Niagara Falls.Sat, 21 Feb 2015 00:13:53 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News35http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsSony is no longer an electronics companyhttp://www.osnews.com/story/28326/Sony_is_no_longer_an_electronics_company/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28326/Sony_is_no_longer_an_electronics_company/Sony announced last night that it's spinning off its audio and video divisions, much like it spun off its television division last year. That won't mean much right now; Sony still displayed interesting new Android-powered TVs at CES, and we're sure to see new crazy high-end Walkmans and camcorders with Sony branding from the newly independent AV division as well.
But the long-term reality is far more stark: after years of promising "One Sony," CEO Kaz Hirai appears to be systematically breaking the company up for sale. The VAIO PC division was sold last year and just announced its first hybrid laptops as an independent company, and Hirai told investors that he has to consider spinning off the smartphone business and possibly selling the TV business outright.
From one Sony to no Sony.Thu, 19 Feb 2015 10:10:41 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News21http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsWhy Samsung design stinkshttp://www.osnews.com/story/28320/Why_Samsung_design_stinks/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28320/Why_Samsung_design_stinks/Kevin Lee calls it "Steve Jobs Syndrome." As the former head of product strategy and user experience design at Samsung Design America, Lee watched as the $100 billion Korean tech giant wrote check after check to countless Western design firms to develop future products for the Korean company. The designers would dig in their heels, refusing to budge on their grand idea or see how it might fit into Samsung's vast production line. And Samsung management would either discard the idea entirely, or water it down so much that the product became another meaningless SKU in the hundreds of products Samsung sells today.
The 'Steve Jobs Syndrome' thing makes no sense - clicks! Clicks! Clicks! - but the rest looks accurate. You can't buy taste - the rumoured one million gold Apple Watches are proof enough of that.Wed, 18 Feb 2015 11:27:03 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News18http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsObama accuses EU of attacking American tech companieshttp://www.osnews.com/story/28319/Obama_accuses_EU_of_attacking_American_tech_companies/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28319/Obama_accuses_EU_of_attacking_American_tech_companies/Barack Obama has angered officials in Europe after suggesting that investigations by the European Union into companies like Google and Facebook were "commercially driven." In an interview with Recode, the president claimed that European "service providers who ... can't compete with ours, are essentially trying to set up some roadblocks for our companies to operate effectively there." The truth, however, is more nuanced than this.
Right, because the US would never do anything to protect its own companies above foreign ones.
Wed, 18 Feb 2015 00:14:55 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News41http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsWhat the tech world doesn't understand about fashionhttp://www.osnews.com/story/28314/What_the_tech_world_doesn_t_understand_about_fashion/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28314/What_the_tech_world_doesn_t_understand_about_fashion/It's pure arrogance for Silicon Valley to imagine that it can make wearables cool by hiring a few fashion people, putting the product on a runway, or throwing money at "collaborations" with brands. This is a new game they're trying to play, one with different rules. The rollout of the Apple Watch would look much different if it were orchestrated by a brand like Chanel. Instead of being released at $350, it would hit stores with a price tag in the thousands. Consumers would clamor to get their hands on one, only to be stymied by limited runs, which would further stoke desire. Only after a few years of artificial scarcity would it enjoy wider release.
Obnoxious? Maybe. But to do cool right, brands have to jettison tech world values like accessibility and utopianism. Cool isn't fair. You can't have it both ways.
We'll see how it goes. The Apple Watch will sell pretty well early on - but I have no idea how well it will do in the long term. Most wearables end up inn drawers, uncharged, forgotten. Time will tell if the Apple Watch will be any different.Mon, 16 Feb 2015 23:29:10 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News18http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsSamsung TVs inserting unwanted ads into users' own movieshttp://www.osnews.com/story/28300/Samsung_TVs_inserting_unwanted_ads_into_users_own_movies/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28300/Samsung_TVs_inserting_unwanted_ads_into_users_own_movies/Samsung's smart TVs have already come under fire this week for a poorly-worded privacy policy that apparently let the devices listen in on owners' conversations. Now, there are reports that the sets are inserting ads "every 20-30 minutes" into users' own, locally-stored content. There's been a string of complaints online by customers using third-party video apps such as Plex and Australian service Foxtel, with most referring to rogue Pepsi ads interrupting their viewing. "After about 15 minutes of watching live TV, the screen goes blank, and then a 16:9 sized Pepsi ads (taking up about half the screen) pops up," wrote a professed Samsung smart TV owner on Foxtel's support forums. "It's as if there is a popup ad on the TV."
If you're into Android, don't buy Samsung. There are enough better alternatives.Wed, 11 Feb 2015 10:38:01 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News20http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsWhy is the dollar sign a letter S?http://www.osnews.com/story/28288/Why_is_the_dollar_sign_a_letter_S_/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28288/Why_is_the_dollar_sign_a_letter_S_/The letter S appears nowhere in the word "dollar", yet an S with a line through it ($) is unmistakably the dollar sign. But why an S? Why isn't the dollar sign something like a Ä (like the former South Vietnamese dong, or the totally-not-a-joke-currency Dogecoin)?
There's a good story behind it, but here's a big hint: the dollar sign isn't a dollar sign.
It's a peso sign.
Fascinating little bit of history. Us Dutch used the 'rijksdaalder' (where the suffix '-daalder' is the Dutch transliteration of the same word 'dollar' comes from) from the late 16th century all the way up until 2002, when we moved to the euro.Sun, 08 Feb 2015 22:35:54 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News21http://www.osnews.com/topics/51NewsGoogle TV, webOS TVs not upgraded to newer versionshttp://www.osnews.com/story/28187/Google_TV_webOS_TVs_not_upgraded_to_newer_versions/
http://www.osnews.com/story/28187/Google_TV_webOS_TVs_not_upgraded_to_newer_versions/
So, what happens to existing Google TV devices now that Android TV is supposedly the future?
Existing Google TV devices and all of the features of these devices will continue to work, and so will the apps you've developed for the Google TV platform. A small subset of Google TV devices will be updated to Android TV, but most Google TV devices won't support the new platform.
No updates? Well, I guess Google wanted to maintain consistency with regular Android.
But wait! Google isn't the only incompetent player in smart TVs.
This is bad. Really. Got the info from LG: "2014 webOS TV models cannot be upgraded to webOS 2.0. Only 2015 TVs will come with webOS 2.0."
Smart TVs suck. Apple, when you're done with that horribly ugly watch of yours, please show them how smart TVs are done.Tue, 06 Jan 2015 22:48:56 GMTdonotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda)In the News29http://www.osnews.com/topics/51News